Trends in Children's Video Game Play: Practical but Not Creative Thinking

Hamlen, Karla R.

Journal of Educational Computing Research, v49 n3 p277-291 Oct 2013

Prior research has found common trends among children's video game play as related to gender, age, interests, creativity, and other descriptors. This study re-examined the previously reported trends by utilizing principal components analysis with variables such as creativity, general characteristics, and problem-solving methods to determine factors that predict greater time spent playing video games among children. Fourth- and fifth-grade students (N = 118) reported their video game play habits and took a creativity assessment. Principal components analysis revealed factors that predict a child will play video games for greater amounts of time. While previous results showed that video game play does not lower children's creativity, results of this analysis build on these results to show that the most creative children do not tend to play video games as often; other characteristics associated with greater video game play include familiarity with gaming, greater practical but less creative problem-solving strategies, and being less likely to be learning academic content. Implications of these findings are discussed.